Who do you think you are?

Are You Here To Be A Speaker? 99
He came out from behind his desk and said, “Don’t ever say that
again. Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.”
That was a defining moment in my life. On one hand, I was
humiliated, but on the other hand, I was liberated. The students were
laughing at me when I turned around and tried to follow the directions
that he was giving me. But at that moment I felt like he was looking at
me with the eyes of Goethe who said, “Look at a man the way that he is,
he only becomes worse. But look at him as if he were what he could be,
and then he becomes what he should be.”
That moment was a life-transforming moment because he had
given me a vision of myself beyond that which I had believed about
myself. Because of what had been spoken to me, the results of my life
academically had convinced me that I was far less than what I was.
The other person is a gentleman named Mike Williams, who’s
been my mentor for the last thirty-eight years. I hired him as my first
newsman and through talking in between the records I was spinning, he
convinced me that I was more than a disc jockey. I believed that I was a
disc jockey. I was “Les Brown, man about town. There were none before
me; there will be none after me. Therefore that makes me the one and
only. Young and single and love to mingle.” So this guy talked to me
about having a larger vision of myself beyond radio. He talked to me
about being a communicator, not just seeing myself as a disc jockey. He
talked to me about seeing myself as a catalyst of action and a messenger
of hope.
That vision he had of me I did not see at the time. But, I came to
understand that sometimes you have to believe in somebody’s belief in
you until your belief in you catches up. This gave birth to a Les Brown
that I did not know existed. That relationship so empowered me that it
inspired me to give up who I was for who I could become and who I am
still becoming. I am much like George Bernard Shaw, who was asked if
he had it in his power to come back as anyone throughout all of history
who would it be? He said, “I’d like to become the man I never was.”
That’s where I am. I’m still reaching, I’m still searching, I’m still
groping and I’m still learning. I’m like the woman who said, “Lord, I
ain’t what I want to be, I ain’t what I’m gonna be, but thank God I sure
ain’t what I was.
It’s because of my relationships with Mike Williams, Mr.
Washington and my mother that this Les Brown, who’s communicating
with you right now, has become the person he is today.